Miss Mwanret Daspan, an aid worker in Maiduguri, Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, who was kidnapped by Boko Haram in December 2020, a native of Plateau State, has been freed.
At the Government House in Rayfield, Jos, Governor Simon Lalong welcomed Daspan home and remarked that only God knows the suffering she endured at the hands of her captors.
“It is, undoubtedly, terrible,” the governor, who was speaking through the deputy governor, Professor Sonni Tyoden, said. “Mwanret must have suffered excruciating emotional and mental chastisements at the hands of the terrorists.”
Lalong drew attention to the fact that many innocent persons who had been held captive never made it back to their families’ loving arms.
He emphasised that Daspan’s story is just one of many similar ones in the state and mentioned the case of a Christian clergyman from the region who was held captive by Boko Haram for several months before being freed.
After meeting Daspan at the Yakubu Gowon Airport, Rebecca Adar Sambo, the commissioner for women’s affairs and social development, remarked earlier that “it is not an easy road to be in captivity for 20 months.
“We thank God for His mercy, as well as security agents who have worked round the clock to ensure she regained her freedom.” Daspan, while speaking, thanked God, the Nigerian Army, the Plateau State government and all those who stood in the gap praying during the period of her travails.
Monday Daspan, who spoke on the family’s behalf, thanked God for bringing their daughter home.
He observed that even though she was the subject of numerous stories, hope was never lost. He remembered when she got in touch with the family and revealed that she was being held captive in the Chad Republic.